ETC? Cheap Highway

[miteyak 0]

Being a li''le backwards for me years (in Japan), the blurb in Japanese about the new ETC payment system on Japanese highways is beyond my comprehension. Could anyone possibly enlighten me to whats involved, and the benefits (beyond jumping the Qz)

[scouser 4]

Jumping the queues and not messing round with cash. I think that's about it. I didnt think it was cheaper than normal.

 

No one uses them do they? I wonder if it's worth it for the mad rush back on a Sunday night in snow season? Hmmm.....anyone?

[Ocean11 0]

I believe you have to pay some 60,000 yen to get the sensor installed in your car. I haven't encountered a line of more than 5 cars at any toll in the 3 years I've been driving here. Also, the ETC wouldn't do you any good at the toll nearest Nozawa - they don't have it there.

 

If you buy highway cards, it's cheaper and there's no cash involved. Anyone who doesn't like 'messing around with cash' is advised to put it in an envelope and send it to me. I'll mess around with it for you.

[Fattwins 0]

I cant imagine how the ETC will help Tokyos problems when it comes to traffic. When there is a one hour Q to get off nothing is going to help.

buy the 50000 highway card good for 2 years and you get a extra 8000 yen on top of the 50000.

[LiquidX 0]

Way too expensive to start off with...

[mogski 0]

I understand that it costs around 30,000 yen to get an ETC unit and then about 5,000 yen or so to install it.

 

I also understand that you get 30,000 yen worht of highway tools free from teh govt. or the road management peoples for using the system.

 

Heard this from a Japanese freind who is using ETC.

 

Definitely nice to have ETC in the Shutoken.

[DrEvil 0]

Expressways are evil. I like them.

[Ocean11 0]

Perhaps I heard wrong then. If that's the case, they're not doing a great job of getting the word out... You'd expect people to be queuing up to go through ETC...

[mogski 0]

I think it has alot to do with the hassle of getting ETC that not that many people are using it.

[gert 0]

Do people here use them or try to avoid them? They're just so danmn expensive.

[miteyak 0]

You can avoid them... just take the train!

 

If the hectic pace of city life hasn't left you with a type A personality, time isn't money, and you're quite content for all the snow to've melted on arrival at a resort, they can be avoided by car, too.

[frannyo 2]

I avoid expressways, just too expensive. Luckily I dont really need them, so thats easy for me to say. I wish I had more money...

[echineko 1]

I dont know anyone use it.

[xxx 2]

Ocean11, you've never seen queues? Then you've never been trying to get back to Tokyo on a Sunday evening in January on the Kanetsu..... (you don't want to try, honest)

[rach 1]

Are costs for the expressways based on distance, or is it more expensive say to use a heavily-tunneled section?

[miteyak 0]

distance

[NoFakie 45]

I think it's closer to 25,000 for the sensor. Had you bought one this year, you'd have got up to a 10,000 rebate on that. I would have thought they'd give higher discounts to ETC than to highway cards to encourage more people to use it, especially at first.

 

I heard once that toll booth staff in the Osaka area had been banned from saying "maido" to thank drivers since some people from other parts of Japan said they didn't understand.

[Ocean11 0]

Apparently you make a saving of 8,000 yen on 50,000 yen prepaid ETC.

[NoFakie 45]

Yes Ocean, but that's no different to the discount you get on a 50,000 yen prepaid highway card. There's no price incentive to stop using highway cards and use ETC instead. In a two-car household like mine, we can get the discount by sharing one card. We'd have to put a sensor in each car for ETC.

[Ocean11 0]

OK, here's the true dope on ETC, from the spotty man at the car shop.

 

You can buy an ETC unit for 21,000 yen. Setup (which takes a week), and installation bring the total price to 31,000 yen. You then need to get an ETC card, for which you may or may not need a credit card. This costs nothing.

 

Then if you buy 10,000 yen credits you save 5,000 yen and save 8,000 yen if you buy 50,000 yen's worth. As NoFakie says, this is just the same as the highway card system.

 

So, to get through the ETC gate (if there is one) it'll cost you 31,000 + yen, and a good deal of messing about first.

[NoFakie 45]

Ocean

 

Thanks for the info. To correct your typo, that's 500 yen discount on a 10,000 yen card. The 50,000 yen one may sound like a lot to pay up front, but the saving is 16%, far more than all those blummin point cards every shop seems to give you these days instead of just lowering their prices hate>.

 

Installation is 10,000 yen! Savage! AutoBacs only charge 4,000 to put a stereo in. Considering how long it takes to get the dash off and back on without damaging it and the wiring that may be involved, 4,000's not a bad deal. I suppose the ETC installation must somehow prevent tampering and reverse engineering to access the encryption algorithm and keys.

[miteyak 0]

Still saying maido to me, and seem to get great pleasure doing so!

[Ocean11 0]

Bad typo.

 

I think the setup charge is much more than installation. The setup involves sending the unit off somewhere to be coded with your personal information.

 

The gentleman in the shop was certainly no salesman - his attitude was definitely 'this is not a particularly desirable thing to have, but if you want it, it's up to you.'

[NoFakie 45]

I hope they're still saying maido and that it is what flashes up if you go through the ETC. Regional differences should be celebrated, not eradicated. It will be a sad day if every noodle shop in Japan starts knocking out generic noodles a la McDonalds or Starbucks.

 

Without larger discounts, ETC looks like a hard sell, especially in the countryside. The saving grace may be the seemingly unlimited amount some people here spend on accessorizing their cars.

[slow 0]

My parents car got ETC! I didn't think they needed it. But it seems like it's time to install ETC system on your car now. The sensor is much cheaper and Autobacs has 5000yen refund campaign!